The proposed research will aim to investigate the problem of post-discharge recidivism and its relationship to utilization of abailable aftercare services. A model for ordering the antecedents of recidivism is proposed. It will be tested utilizing data already collected by the Santa Barbara Comprehensive Follow-Up Study on 186 individuals who returned to the county after their discharge from a State Hospital. The research will involve generation of empirical measures of variables suggested by the model, examination of their interrelationships and utilization of multivariate techniques to assess the impact of selected characteristics of former patients and of dimensions of aftercare utilization on short term rehospitalization.